Construction of a proposed $42 million expansion to an organic recycling plant found to be causing odours across parts of Mandurah could start within months after being granted approval by State planners.
The Metro Outer Development Assessment Panel approved organic recycling company C-Wise’s application to build a new plant to replace its existing Nambeelup premises at a meeting on Thursday.
The expansion will allow C-Wise to process FOGO waste, supporting the implementation of FOGO collection across the Peel region, and will be built with $5.75m in funding from the State and Federal governments to turn the waste into compost.
The new facility will be built in two phases and will allow the company to process up to 200,000 tonnes of solid organic waste — up from 150,000 — and up to 60,000 tonnes of liquid organic waste into compost each year.
It will eventually replace the company’s existing premises which have been in the spotlight this year after it and another Nambeelup business, CM Farms, were issued Environmental Protection Notices requiring them to investigate an odour which had been the subject of thousands of public reports to the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.
C-Wise chief executive Greg Watts said the company’s existing facility’s “lifespan is nearing its end” necessitating the development of a “better practice” facility.
Mr Watts said the new facility would go “above and beyond the requirements laid out by government” to “operate at absolute best practice when it comes to both sustainability and odour reduction”.
“The design, planning and site location of the new facility has been guided by DWER’s stringent requirements for composting facilities, published in its Better Practice Organics Recycling Guidelines, and will eliminate and minimise the potential for odour,” he said.
Construction of the expansion is expected to start in September.
A report to the panel by the Shire of Murray said it had received 83 submissions about the development during public consultation, with all of them raising “matters of concern” — 79 raising concerns about the impact of odour emissions from the facility.
Altus Planning’s Joe Algeri presented in favour of the development during the meeting and stressed that “any existing concerns with odour are not conflated with the current proposal” because of the measures the new plant would have in place to reduce odours.
“This will be an improved facility incorporating the latest technology, with significant investment and design focus given to eliminating and minimising sources of odour,” Mr Algeri said.
“The (current) lease area is coming to an end. C-Wise acknowledges there’s been issues where they are but they want to move to better technology and better practice.”
Mr Algeri noted the current C-Wise plant was “amongst other odour emitters” and said he “couldn’t imagine a worse time” for the public advertising period because it occurred over summer “when you’ve generally got more of an odour problem”.
Odour-reducing measures at the proposed plant will include stacks that release odours quickly and high into the air, dispersing the odours widely to dilute them, and biofilters that use tree bark to reduce smells.
The shire has also introduced conditions which will limit the amount of odour that can be emitted, require C-Wise to provide “a clear and accessible procedure” for members of the public to report direct odour complaints, and includes a measure which sets out a course of action if odour complaints are received and verified, which can include a temporary shutdown of operations.
John Hurley, an odour science expert from Environmental & Air Quality Consulting, said during the meeting that the existing C-Wise facility “essentially has no odour control” whereas the new facility “intends to have full odour control”.
“You’re taking all those exposed odours to atmosphere and you’re controlling them, you’re encapsulating them and turning them into a controlled odour emission source that passes through biofiltration before (the) atmosphere,” he said.
“So you won’t have odour characters emitted from the new facility that in any way resemble what comes from the existing facility on the basis of that odour capture and control system.”
Shire of Murray councillor Ange Rogers proposed adding another condition that would require C-Wise to have a 10,000L water tanker on site to address the potential fire risk of the compost piles.
Cr Rogers said “smouldering piles of mulch” currently accounted for “nearly every fire call-out to that site” and an on-site water tanker would help manage the issue.
Mr Algeri said the “risk of fires is quite great” at the existing facility, which he described as a “fairly unsophisticated open-air facility”.
“You’ve got an enclosed environment here (the proposal) where there is regulation of temperature, moisture and humidity and so forth,” he said.
“It’s important to emphasise that this will be a highly managed environment and certainly DWER have got numerous standards and guidelines to regulate these types of facilities over time.”
Cr Rogers’ motion did not gain the support of the other panel members.